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Following on from an earlier article which examined the immorality of trying to balance the infinite dignity of human life with the finite prices of material goods during this pandemic – we continue our collaboration with Dr. Lite.
Assorted grossly ignorant politicians and pundits have rationalized our pathetically inadequate preparation for the current pandemic based on the claim that “no one could have predicted such an ‘unimaginable’ catastrophe”.
In part this is egregious spin-doctoring. In the UK, Churchillian rhetoric and speeches from the Queen frame the virus as an invading army:- ‘casualties’ are the fault of ‘the enemy’ and not the establishment. Those risking and losing their lives on the ‘front line’ for the lack of basic PPE are applauded and are to be given medals. In truth, the suffering and death in hospitals and care homes flows from cavalier health policy blunders and a decade of Tory sabotage of the NHS.
Quite aside from the PR blitz, the fact remains that many have been urgently aware, some for several decades, of the likelihood – indeed the eventual inevitability – of a pandemic just like the current one.
As human populations grow, more and more formerly wild areas will be consumed by “development” and increasing numbers of novel pathogens will be flushed out of the ecological woodwork. Some will be comparatively mild. Some will peter out quickly, or be contained by effective public-health measures. And some will Get Loose. COVID-19 is one of the latter group…but it is by no means the Big One.
Sooner or later, one will come along that is just as infectious as COVID-19, but far more lethal (and, perhaps, far more horrible, like Ebola or one if its close cousins). Perhaps next time the death toll will be in billions, rather than in mere millions, and the herd will have been well and truly thinned.
Perhaps it is time, then, to consider a New Normal: one in which we limit our population voluntarily, stop ravaging our planet’s wildernesses and clean up the mess that we’ve made of the Earth. We need to regard ourselves as participants and stewards within our environment, rather than exploiters and despots. We must strive for a community in which all can thrive – not just a luxuriating elite.
Alas, one suspects that this latter hope is altogether forlorn, tragically naïve, even risible. Seemingly, we have just enough Nous to hang ourselves, and not a centimetre more. Our entire economic culture – built on More Is Better, Idle Luxuriance, and Gross Injustice – is fundamentally immoral from top to bottom; but we lack the will, or even the inclination, to do anything about: to redeem our overwhelming lack of respect for others, for our planet, and for ourselves.
When the Big One eventually comes (as it invariably will) – combined with all of the other apocalyptic disasters that our ravages, reckless disregard, and boundless greed have wrought – the blame will fall on no one but ourselves…and there will, be no “business as usual” to get back to, no matter how many lives are “paid in exchange”.
However the current pandemic ends, the normal we seek to return to is neither ‘normal’ nor sustainable. Covid-19 may have paused protests about climate change, biodiversity loss and nuclear weapons – but the other three horsemen of the apocalypse haven’t gone away.
What many regard as frightening and exceptional right now is but a mild prelude of what lies ahead if we try to return to ‘business as usual’.
It is far from clear that any return to ‘normal’ will be possible in any event. Immense towers of private and corporate debt are now swaying dangerously close to collapse because our monetary system cannot cope with a global depression. It is far from clear how a major systemic financial crash is to be avoided or how we would recover from one.
Is any acquired immunity to COVID-19 temporary? Can the disease lay dormant only to be reactivated later? Will we ever be free of this virus?
The usual suspects are putting huge pressure on besieged national governments to relax restrictions on movement, but this risks a global health calamity which might last for years. What grotesque human carnage might COVID-19 yet cause in crowded and less prosperous nations like India, Nigeria and Bangladesh? How can global neoliberalism and global supply chains continue when one half is locked down and the other half has closed its borders?
The true pathogen stalking the earth right now is not COVID-19…it is us. Human beings are not innately toxic but our prevailing moral praxis is. Not even wealthy western nations can now ‘outsource’ the consequences of toxic moral norms. Nobody can ignore the fact that what we regard as ‘normal’ is in fact highly dysfunctional.
COVID-19 could be a wake up call that actually wakes us up – or it could be just more blurred scenery en route to the apocalypse. Either way, we should acknowledge that COVID-19 is but one relatively mild consequence of our immorality – not a random misfortune that will go away soon.
Since 2013 I have worked between 4-6 hours a day on this Ad-Free site: trying to give a voice to those without the power or agency to speak out for themselves and uncovering truths that well paid journalists in the corporate media dare not utter.
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Thank you in solidarity with all our readers. John Lynch, Editor.
Yes,a very good piece,thank you.